Rumours
by crimsonvortex
Summary: What? Is Sora in love? Steph spends four days trying to find out who Sora's mysterious 'love' is.
1. Chapter 1

**Sorry if any of the characters are out of character! It's been awhile since I watched NGNL. Here is some Jibril and Steph good old fun. **

***gasps* Is Sora in love? Let's find out! ;)**

**Many thanks to Rose Rain 7 for encouraging me to write another NGNL fic! :)**

**Enjoy!**

**Please review! ;)**

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Stephanie did not want to admit it. There was no way it was true. Nope, no way. The king. Sora was not in love with someone. She couldn't believe it and wouldn't believe it. There had been rumors amongst the servants of the kingdom for awhile now.

"Did you hear? The king might be in love!"

"Really? Who would love him?"

"Actually he is kind of cute."

Stephanie glared at the two maids who stood in the middle of the hallway gossiping and they nervously scuttled away from her. There had to be a mistake. Stephanie frantically paced back and forth, almost running into small servant boy who was trying to deliver a pack of bread to the kitchen that she was blocking with her rapid pacing.

There was only one thing to do...

Finally reaching a decision, she stopped abruptly, bumping into the boy, making the pack of bread fly in the air. Not noticing the boy scramble to try and catch the flying bread, she exclaimed, "I shall find out who it is! Sora will not get away with this!"

Determined, she turned on her heel and started down the hallway, completely oblivious to the poor panting servant who was on the floor, clutching a pack bread tightly.

**Day one...**

Stephanie peered around the corner to look at the two siblings who were peacefully playing video games. She ducked down, intent on letting no one see her.

Till she heard a voice whisper in her ear, "What are you doing?"

Stephanie yelped and backed against the door, her face equivalent to a deer in headlights. "Jibril! I..uh..I.."

The winged servant stared at her thoughtfully, "Could it be that you are spying on Sora and Shiro?"

"No!"

"Then why are you hiding behind the door?"

"No reason!'

"That's interesting."

"What? No...I mean..I dropped something!"

"Hmm. And what object did you happen to drop?"

"..I...um...a hair band.."

Jibril tilted her head and nodded. "Would it happen to be the same hair band that is currently in your hair?"

Stephanie's hand flew up to her head and felt the pink hair band, laughing nervously she backed away,

"Oh...silly me...I had no idea it was there." With another nervous giggle, she turned and hurriedly walked away from the suspicious Jibril.

That was close.

**Day two...**

Stephanie walked softly down the hallway, intent on making no sounds. Yesterday had been embarrassing when Jibril caught her. But if she didn't make any sounds then nobody would catch her sneaking down the corridor in the middle of the night to check on the siblings. So far... she hadn't seen Sora make any suspicious moves all day, if he did sneak out to visit his..'love'... it would be at night and then Stephanie could catch him the act.

She quickly looked into their bedroom to see the two siblings sleeping peacefully. Nodding to herself, she backed away, closing the door softly and settling herself on the ground by the door. Now no one could get out without getting pass her.

**10 mins later...**

She would not scream.

Stephanie remained very still, staring at what had appeared not ten minutes after  
she had settled down comfortable.

A mouse.

A brown tiny mouse with large brown eyes.

And Stephanie was currently having a staring contest with the tiny...scary..little mouse. Neither she nor the mouse blinked.

They were stuck in a viscous battle of wits. Even though they both had not spoken to one another, they knew. Oh, they knew that the first one to blink was the loser.

The mouse slyly took his paw and stepped forward a inch, causing Stephanie to jump slightly and blink.

Oh, no...

Stephanie stared at the mouse who looked at her with innocent and kind eyes but in her vision the mouse was smirking and preparing to pounce. Scrambling up from the floor, she ran for her life down the hallway, away from the killer rat.

The small, tiny, adorable mouse blinked owlishly as he watched Stephanie run. He heard a cackle from behind him and turned to look at his owner, who was flapping her wings and leaning over laughing.

"Oh my...Did you see her face? She looked so scared of you!" Jibril giggled and picked up her precious adorable pet mouse. "You really need to stop escaping from your cage." Jibril tapped her chin, thoughtfully. "Although...I wonder why Steph was hiding in front of the master's rooms..."

**Day three**

She couldn't take this. Stephanie had to find out who this women was. She stomped down the hallways of the castle moodily. This was definitely getting on her nerves.

"Oh I find you beautiful!"

Stephanie stopped walking and stared at the door way to her left. That was Sora's voice. That meant...whoever was in the room with Sora was his love. Holding in her excitement, she bent down to look through the keyhole.

Nope. Couldn't see anything.

Carefully as she could, she pushed the wooden door open to peer into the room, only to see Sora's back. She pushed the door open a little bit more, determined to see who he was talking too but still not wanting to be found out.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw a flash of feathers and pink but before she could react, it giggled and shoved her forward, causing the door to swing open and her to fall to the floor.

Painfully.

In front of Sora.

Curse Jibril.

Stephanie groaned and started to get off the floor when she froze at a voice.

"Steph? What are you doing?" Sora's confused voice asked her.

Snapping her head up, she glanced around the room for the mysterious women who just had to be here. But the room was empty except for her, Sora and of course, Shiro who was sitting off to the side, reading a book. The only thing in front of Sora was...a mirror?

"Um...dusting the floor..."

Sora shrugged, "Fine. You welcomed to watch my brilliance.." He promptly turned back towards the mirror and continued making faces and poses at his reflection.

Stephanie wanted to faceplant repeatedly on the ground.

**Day four...**

"You are so obviously jealous."

Stephanie turned to stare at Jibril who had perched herself on her desk. Closing her mouth, she decided to ignore the winged servant for now and focus on her work.

"You are..." Jibril continued to chant softly.

Dropping her pencil on her paper, she retorted, "No I am not."

"You are."

"I am not!"

"We could spend all day debating this."

"And the answer will still be the same..."

"Yes..it would be...You are jealous."

"If you say that again I will pluck your feathers."

"Ooh...flirting with me, are you?"

"What? No!"

"Defensive much? So you do have feelings for me..."

"I don't!"

"But you were flirting with me." Jibril pouted.

"I was threatening you!"

"Oh! It was that kind of teasing! Why, Steph_-chan_! I had no idea..."

"Shut up! Ok...I am slightly jealous..." Stephanie smacked the back of Jibril's head with a stack of unfinished papers.

Jibril giggled and hopped off of the desk, cheerfully. "It doesn't matter anymore. I got my answer."

Stephanie suspiciously watched the cheerful servant leave,"What do you mean?'

Jibril skipped towards the door., explaining herself over her shoulder. "My master told me to spread that love rumor to see who would get jealous when they heard that he was in love with someone. Looks like I got my answer."

Stephanie's eyes widened in horror. "What? No! Jibril! Don't!" She stumbled out of her chair, tripping over her own feet trying to chase Jibril. "I won't let you tell him!"

"Oh? And you can stop me?"

"I will stop you!"

"I would like to remind you on which one of us has wings here..."

Despite chasing and threatening Jibril... Stephanie wasn't able to stop Jibril...

Which started a whole different level of events...

**Cliffhanger? Or...The End?**


	2. Chapter 2

**I might...I might not continue this. But I give you guys a second chapter anyway. **

**Enjoy!**

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"Don't you dare tell him!" Stephanie called out frantically as she ran down down another corridor, panting. A giggle that echoed down the hallway, mocking her was the only thing she heard in reply.

Sora and Shiro are probably in throne room, playing games.

Stephanie quickly ran down a different hallway. Just because Jibril had wings that didn't mean that she could get to the throne room quicker. Stephanie grew up in this castle. That meant that she knew more tricks about the castle than Jibril, which meant that there was still a chance to get to the throne room quicker. Stephanie wasn't going let the fact that she was jealous about Sora reach his ears. Oh, would he  
gloat and tease her about it. She wasn't going to let that pervert get that kind of satisfaction.

Reaching the throne room, she skidded to a stop in front of them, panting. Was she in time?

Jibril's voice traveled through the doors, "So you see..."

Bursting forward with a extra burst of energy she didn't know she had, swinging the doors open with bang and a loud shout, "Stop!"

Silence.

Jibril cheerfully broke the silence, "As I said before Stephanie rudely interrupted us. So you see... that is my report."

Sora stared at her, then at Stephanie with a unreadable expression, his face rather blank.

Stephanie stared in horror. It was too late. Sora would embarrass her and...

"There was no one?" Sora asked.

Stephanie froze, caught between looking at Jibril and Sora frantically.

"Yes. Nobody responded to your rumor at all, master." Jibril replied, glancing at Stephanie quickly.

Sora pondered in silence for a full two minutes before letting out a pitiful moan, clutching at his sister's neck. "Why? Why?" Sora sobbed. "Do you think that maybe..." He gasped, tears streaming down his face. "Maybe...I am unpopular?"  
Shiro merely patted his head, not long overly concerned. "There...there, Onii-chan."

Stephanie merely slid down to the floor, cursing and thanking Jibril in her head. She had work to get back too. But for right now, she just wanted sit there, all that running made her tired.

And now Sora's crying and whining was giving her a headache. This man was a king?

Shiro spoke up, curiosly over Sora's crying, "What did you mean, Steph? Is something wrong?"

"What?"

"You came in yelling."

"Uh...wrong room."

"Wrong room?"

"Steph and I have work to do so we shall leave you two be." Jinril waved at the siblings before grabbing Steph by the back of her dress and proceeded to drag her out the door.

Stephanie scowled, struggling as she got dragged slowly down the hallway," Let me go!"

"Certainly." Jibril dropped her unceremoniously on the ground, making Steph to let out a 'oof' as a breath of air escaped her.

"Four days"

"Huh?" Steph stared blankly at Jibril.

"See..I am rather bored. So I shall give you four days. In those four days you will find ways to confess love your to Sora."

"W-what? No way! Besides..." Steph stared at the ground. "He already knows."

"Yes. I am aware. But I have noticed lately when you blush, that you are rather quiet instead of banging your head against the wall like a idiot. Which probably means you have accepted it."

"No!"

"Yes."

"No!"

"Well..." Jibril stared in thought at her. " I have a even better game then..."

Instantly Stephanie was nervous, none of these ideas were at all good. Turning on her heel, she went to escape, "I will pass."

"Sora might be in love."

Stephanie froze, eyes wide and she felt Jibril come up behind her and whisper into her ear. "Why did my master order me to pass that rumor around? Hmm? For his own amusement? Or do you think that Sora really could be in love and wanted to see if that said person returned his feelings by being jealous?"

Stephanie backed away to stare at Jibril, laughing, "That idiot, pervert and creep in love? Don't make me laugh..." But her laughs fell away at Jibril's smirk.

"You know the master never thinks simply. He always has a deeper plan. And he always win." Jibril walked past her casually, "Come one..Four days to figure that out. I may or not know who it is but I assure you, I will not tell you."

Stephanie gulped. That was a very good point. "What if I decide to play your game? What is in it for me?"

"Why, you get to figure out who Sora loves. And if you wish I will offer myself. You are free to order me to do your paperwork for a entire week if you wish."

"And if I lose?"

"I am free to do whatever I want with the knowledge that you are in love with Sora with no argument from you."

Stephanie nervously picked at her dress. This was risky. Jibril with free range to do what she wanted with that knowledge. Sora could find out, servants could find out, oh the entire kingdom could know.

Former princess, granddaughter of the late king was in love with current king. That would create a stir.

But...she wanted to find out who it was. Really badly. There was a chance that it was just Jibril playing her, which was highly likely. Even Steph knew that was kind of closed minded of her to think that.

What had made her lose all those games? Not thinking out of the box. Sora thinks out of box and widely, so she wouldn't put past him to do something like this if he was indeed in love. It was time to accept and try to level up to Sora's level of thinking. She could do this, find out who Sora was in love with.

"What about you? Why are you so interested?"

"Me? I am simply bored."

Bored? Well..that did make sense and a bored Jibril was never good. Then again neither was a active Jibril. Oh, she was going to regret this.

Determined, she said to Jibril's retreating back, " I accept your game,"

Jirbril paused and a smirk grew across her face.

This would be fun.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Next chapter! Not my best I know...but more of a filler chapter that I hope you guys enjoy. It ties into the plot that I just thought of literally two minutes ago. So...it is highly likely that I continue this! Sorry for any errors, I tried my best, on tablet, haha. Enjoy! Please review!  
_**

**_Tell me if I got anyone out of character please, :) Thanks, _**

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_Aschente!_

And thus the game was started. This was not simple nor was it fun for poor Stephanie, it was sadly tomorow morning. Frankly, in Stephanie's mind, it was completely and utterly ridiculous. She had to be have been crazy for even thinking of accepting the game. Did this even count as a game? Finding out who Sora loved? Pfft.

Did she love...Sora...?

No! There was no way, no possible way in the whole world that she did. That would crazy. Even if she did, it wasn't by choice. It was by that self self-centered, idiot, pervert who made her fall in love with him.

Ah! That..baka!

...

...

...

"Onii-chan? Why is Steph banging her head against the wall?"

"In times like this, Shiro...we must simply walk away. We can order the servants to repair wall later."

"Hai."

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**Next morning...**

This was the first day and already, Stephanie felt miserable. Maybe it had something to do with Jibril cheerfully pouring a glass of water over her when she refused to get up? Who knows.

Right now, all she could think about was how today was the first day of that dreadful game.

Where should she start?

To any obvious person, it would be, check the mail. But Stephanie was he on always delivered the mail and there was never anything in it for Sora, so that wouldn't help. Shiro, to her suprise and Sora's horror, got tons of fan-mail from admirerers from town, all telling her how cute she was.

Sora got nothing.

No fan-mail.

Absolutely nothing.

Hehe. Stephanie couldn't help but snicker at that.

Oh...unless there was another servant who delivered separate mail?

Stephanie rubbed her head in hopes that it would soften the dull pain in her head, presumably from banging her head against the wall last night.

No luck, looks like she had to deal with the game and headache. But first, some food. She started towards the kitchens, earlier she left breakfast without eating much, due to being dripping wet from a water glass by Jibril, again.

With a sniff, she entered the kitchen, there was a scent of something was baking.

No...

Something was burning...

Eh...Stephanie blinked at the sight of both siblings in the kitchen, attempting to break eggs into a bowl. What. Was.. Such a simple task looks like it had been turned into a heavy complicated circus trick.

"Onii-chan.. this isn't difficult."

"Says you! You wanted to bake cookies! I think a hearty bowl of ramen would suffice. All you have to do is add water and Tada!"

"They don't have ramen here."

The older red-haired sibling gasped but then instantly got sparkles in his eyes, "I am king. I shall order a production of ramen immediately! I shall build a ramen factory!"

Shiro also got sparkles in her eyes, "Oh, Onii-chan..."

"Oh, Shiro...ramen.."

Stephanie practically screeched, "What. Is. Going. On?!"

"Eek."

_Splat  
_

There went half of the eggs, on the floor, and the two siblings huddled near each other in fear of the dark aura coming from their dear Steph. They should of known. Afterall, Steph loves her kitchen so much. They really should of known better.

"Well?"

Sora stared at her before speaking first, "We were m-making c-cookies for you!"

She blinked again in suprise. For her? They were making cookies...for her? That was different.

Shiro piped up, "It was Onii-chan's idea."

"Ehhhh? It was your idea, Shiro!"

"Was not."

Sora glared at his younger sister, "It was too! You wanted to make cookies because our Steph was sad!"

"You felt that she was sad too. And you wanted to make ramen."

"Ramen is a lovely delicious meal that can be cooked in less than a minute! It is good for the soul and mind!"

"That doesn't exist anymore.."

"It is the mere thought that matters."

"So you thought of it. That is why we are here. "

"It was your idea. You are pinning this on me! Don't believe her, Steph!"

Jibril poked her head through the door, grinning, "Actually, everything was probably my idea."

_Silence..._

...

...

The siblings pointed at the door, "Blame her!"

"Aww. Why me?"

"Just because."

Stephanie had too much running through her head at the moment, Sora, Sora, the kitchen, bakimg cookies, ramen, Jibril, Shiro, and several thoughts of Sora that were not at all good for her health right now. Since she had a headache and she could not stand this anymore, she would do the smart thing, kick them out of the kitchen.

"All. Of. You. Out. Now!"

They all stood straight up and saluted her before running away, "Yes, Your Majesty!"

She slumped down in a flour covered chair to get her bearings. Lifting her head, she surveyed her surroundings with a dismayed look. Flour was everywhere, ceiling, floor, chairs, on the table. Eggs were also everywhere and anchovies scattered in various places. It would take ages to clean up.

Wait...

Anchovies?

Just what kind of cookies had they been making her?

Nevermind that, why was the batter pink-ish...?

Stephanie stomped her foot like a child and frowned to herself in frustration. Those two were going to get banned from the kitchen if they did anything like this again. One she could handle, two was more than what she could handle, and Jibril was just no help,

But she had to calm herself down, she had to think calmly. She took deep breathes, she counted to ten, she though of Sora, she thought of all these things that could calm her down.

They worked.

She totally _did not_ think of Sora. Just no.

She turned to the two servants who warily been watching her mutter to herself. Their princess had always been odd, a bit more now, especially after befriending the new king and queen.

Stephanie asked, "Could you clean this up?"

They nodded, feeling no need to speak, the girl still looked deep in thought and they did not want to disturb that.

Stephanie left the kitchen in the hands of the other servants and hurried out to follow those two troublemakers. Following them would be a good idea to start with, then if that didn't work, she could always capture Shiro.

Sora went everywhere with Shiro and Shiro went everywhere with Sora. Shiro would have information. Stephanie just had to figure out a way to bribe the little girl.

And she knew just how to do it...


End file.
